Africa is on the move, who is investing over there?

There are at least 5 reasons to invest in Africa, according to Africa Capital Group, which aregrowth, natural wealth, value, political progress and favorable demographics. Although Africa has been growing much more rapidly than the OECD nations for years, many businessmen have yet to realize the scope and the variety of Africa’s investment opportunities. Indeed, as Oxford University Professor Paul Collier wrote on McKinsey & Company’s website, “the typical investment portfolio has massive exposure to the OECD countries and negligible exposure to Africa.”

This is going to change, analysts said. Around 2,000 Chinese companies have invested in Africa so far and Beijing-sponsored Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has planned to invest $60 billion more, mainly in loans and export credits. Despite the widespread idea that China’s the leading investor in Africa particularly in the infrastructure sector, Europe and the United States remained the continent’s biggest investors. According to reports cited by the Financial Times, Western Europe came first with an estimated $47.6 billion invested in 2014, followed by North America at $13 billion and China at $6.1 billion.

In the end, did you know that contrary to popular thinking, according to fDi Markets, France has topped FDI source country for investment into Africa at $18.3 billion that is 3 times more than China? “France has strong historic ties with Africa where at least 115 million people speak French, and has developed a very reliable network of partners and investors across the continent. Africa’s definitely on the move and French companies have become aware of that trend for a long time,” explained Cyceon’s Executive Director Charles Rault.